Virginia Cookery-book

Baked oysters are precisely like scolloped ones, only a baking-dish is used large enough to supply a whole company, instead of the shells, which cannot always be procured in parts of the country remote from the oyster fisheries. Oyster Patty. Make a nice pastry precisely as you would for chicken pie, allowing two quarts of flour for it, and a pound of butter, if you are preparing a gallon dish for a company of as many as twelve persons. Provide three quarts of oysters and put them on to stew half done, with a pint of milk and half of their own liquor, before they are enclosed in the pastry. When you think they are about half done line the dish with pastry and fill it two-thirds full with the oysters, adding a quarter of a pound of butter broken up with a seasoning of pepper and celery salt ; sprinkle thickly over with flour, and lay on a top crust. Bake quickly and steadily for half or three-quarters of an hour, or until you perceive that the pie is nicely done. Oyster Fritters. A pint and a half of milk, a pound and a quarter of flour, four eggs The yolks of the eggs are to be beaten light first, then the milk and flour added, then all stirred smoothly together. Afterward whisk up the whites of the eggs until very light and add them to the batter, a little at a time. Take a spoonful of the batter, drop an oyster into it, and fry it in hot lard. Let them be a light brown on both sides. The oysters should not be put into the batter all at once, as they would thin it. Allow enough lard for the fritters to actually boil in it, for then they absorb hardly any, and what you use one time may be strained and used again. It is poor economy to do things so that they shall not please when done. One pound of lard would not be too much to allow for cooking this quantity. To Fry Oysters. Choose the very largest, finest oysters you can get, Black River or Lynn Haven Bay, if accessible ; spread them on a coarse linen cloth laid out upon a board to dry for some hours before proceeding to fry them. When ready pepper the oysters, roll them in com meal, and drop them for frying into a skillet half full of melted lard. Drain and serve promptly. Some persons roll them in cracker or bread crumbs after dipping the oysters in the yolk of egg, and also add a little chopped parsley for seasoning ; but some cooks complain that under this mode of treatment they become brittle, and say that simple corn meal is much more satisfactory. The excellence of the dish necessarily depends upon the quality of the oyster, and, since frying is the most undesirable mode in which food can be prepared, if health is considered, we should resort to it but rarely, even to procure so luscious a morsel as is a well-fried oyster. To Make Oyster Loaves. (Mrs. Maria Randolph.) Take small loaves of light bread, cut off the tops, scrape out all the crumb, then put some oysters into a stewpan with the crumb of the loaves, a little water, and a good lump of butter ; stew them together ten or fifteen minutes, then put in a spoonful of good cream, fill your loaves, lay the bit of crust carefully on again, and set them in the oven to crisp. Three are enough for a side-dish. Tbbbapin Stbw.